Technical Field
The exemplary and non-limiting embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to audio devices and, more particularly, to mobile devices having panel speakers that incorporate stiffening structures to improve acoustic performance.
Brief Description of Prior Developments
Mobile devices such as phones generally include earpieces that employ conventional speaker technology to enable a user to listen to a downlink signal. In a phone employing conventional speaker technology, audio signals are emitted from a device located internally in the phone, through a hole, and directly into the user's ear.
Some mobile phone manufacturers produce phones that employ panel speakers behind a front display through which the user interacts with the phone. The phones that incorporate such panel speakers are narrow band devices that generally do not provide wide band call quality audio signals as output. Furthermore, an upper portion of the front display often forms a “dead band” that does not provide any audio signal output.